Gov't
agencies pool efforts
to dampen El Niño effects
Government
agencies finally roll sleeves and joined hands to mold interventions to dampen
the effects of dry spell impacting on the country's farm sector.
The
Department of Agriculture (DA) and six more attached agencies pool assorted intervention
measures including optimized water delivery to irrigation systems, unleashing
mobile animal diagnostic laboratories to tame the brunt of the abnormal weather
condition.
DA
has redirected the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and its irrigators'
associations (IAs) in El Niño-affected areas; the Bureaus of Soils and
Water Management (SWM), of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and of Animal
Industry (BAI); National Food Authority (NFA); and the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI)
to take a second look at lessening the impact of the dry spell.
El
Niño; the unusual warming of sea surface temperatures along the equatorial
Pacific divests the zone of its average rainfall causing dry spells.
The
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa)
foresees a mild El Niño attack but the weather aberration is still projected
to last until July.
| | | But
the DA, through Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla said the regional field units
(RFUs) have been tasked to help implement measures especially those needing close
supervision at the municipal level.
According
to DA, the measures include scheduling the release of irrigation diversion equipment
for the Angat Maasim River Irrigation System (AMRIIS), through the DA and NIA,
and linking of canals from the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System
(UPRIIS) to the Angat-Maasim Dam covering 6,000 hectares in Bulacan, to avoid
delays in the planting season," he said. | He
added that "NIA teams up with IAs in optimizing water delivery and scheduling
to national irrigation systems and rehabilitating existing irrigation canals through
the drainage reuse system."
With
the Philippine Air Force, the BSWM is now carrying out seeding operations in critical
drought areas, Fondevilla noted.
BSWM
and BFAR has agreed to install 6,000 units of shallow tube wells and pumps or
engine sets for fisheries, covering 18,000 hectares in drought affected provinces,
and establish open source wells for community food gardens producing high value
commercial crops (HVCCs). (PIA)
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